October Independent Reading Project: Language Arts, Reading, & Social Studies

Grade
This project should reflect a deep understanding of the selected American Indian
text as well and great effort for the month long project. Just as the work to earn
AR points are done mostly at home, the majority of the work for this project will be
done at home as very little (if any) class time will be given.
Culture Kits
After studying four different American Indian cultures we will have learned:
To learn about another persons culture, you have to be aware of how that person
behaves (what she or he does) and what that person believes.
All the people of the world have many things in common, including families, education,
governments, religion, and celebration days.
To create a Culture Kit, follow these steps:
1. Choose a book with a Native American theme and approve it with your teacher
2. Read and reread the book for deep understanding
a. You must take notes
3. Appropriately decorate a box to reflect the culture you read about
4. Choose six items to put in your culture kit.
a. Items must reflect the main ideas and main events.
b. Handmade preferred over purchased
c. 3-dimensional, not 2-dimensional
5. Write a brief paragraph explaining why each item was important to the culture
you read about.
6. Be prepared to give a short speech to your classmates about the items in your
culture kit.
a. Use large index cards w/ speech notes to help you
b. Practice picking each item out of the box and explaining its importance as
it is related to the book.
c. Book must be present.

October Independent Reading Project: Language Arts, Reading, & Social Studies
Grade
This project should reflect a deep understanding of the selected American Indian
text as well and great effort for the month long project. Just as the work to earn
AR points are done mostly at home, the majority of the work for this project will be
done at home as very little (if any) class time will be given.
Scrapbook Report (this works well for fiction, biographies, or legends)
This report will be a character study of the main character in the book. You are to
create a scrapbook as if the main character put it together. You will share the
scrapbook in class. The book must be present when sharing.
COVER
The scrapbook cover should creatively include:
the characters name

title of the book

the authors name

student name

JOURNAL ENTRIES
Take notes over the book. Write six journal entries (6 pages) from the main
characters point of view (I, me, my) that gives a summary of the book. Each journal
entry should be written in paragraph (minimum of 6 sentences) form and include:

Page 1-A brief description of the main character

Page 2 the setting (time and place(s))

Page 3,4,5 - the major events (beginning, middle, and end)

Page 6 the conclusion

Pictures to illustrate the following (paired w/ the journal entry)

SCANNED/COPIED PICTURES FROM THE BOOK WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED
o

The main character in a scene from the book

The characters family or friends

The main characters accomplishments

The setting of the story

A picture of your choice